Girls basketball: Chemistry tests as hoop seasons open

DOVER — It's easy to have team chemistry at the start of the season when every team is 0-0.

But the players and coaches at the girls basketball jamboree at Dover High School on Saturday said they believe the chemistry will still be there even if the going gets tough.

"We played fall ball in Maine with a bunch of AAU teams that were really good," said Coe-Brown senior center Anna McCusker. "We tried to stay positive together, and I know a lot of the girls picked up on that."

With Coe-Brown losing a number of players from its team that went 10-8 last season, McCusker said she and her teammates are out to prove that the Bears should be taken seriously in Division II.

"It definitely motivates us," McCusker said. "We don't really talk about last year's team that much. This is our team now; this is our new year. We're going to just play our game."

Coe-Brown opens the season Friday at Lebanon.

"We have a lot of inexperience behind Anna," said Coe-Brown fourth-year head coach Joe Vachon. "We're still trying to put the puzzle together."

Dover senior forward Maggie Casey said the Green Wave may have a lot of young players in their lineup, but she doesn't necessarily think that's a bad thing.

"We have a lot of potential," Casey said. "It's just going to be a matter of working together. We just have to keep it positive — last year, when things got hard, we got to telling each other what not to do, instead of what to do better."

Dover was 10-10 last season and was eliminated in the Division I quarterfinals. This will be the team's last season at Ollie Adams Gym before moving to a newly built facility next year.

"The vibe is very good," Dover coach Dan Casey said. "Everybody's getting along well. You can't understate the importance of chemistry. If you're having a bad experience with drama and other things, it leads to all kinds of negatives in other areas."

Casey said team chemistry, especially during a rough stretch, is a matter of perspective.

"The focus is on the process, not the results," Casey said. "If we're taking care of business and trying to get better every day, the scoreboard will take care of itself."

Dover hosts Nashua South to tip off the new season on Friday.

Thanks to a scheduling quirk, Portsmouth won't start its D-II season until Dec. 14 at Coe-Brown, and won't play at home until the fifth game of the season, Jan. 5 against Kennett.

The Clippers — which came tantalizingly close to an appearance in the D-II championship game last season — will have to cope with the departure of two-time state Player of the Year Libby Underwood, who now plays college basketball at William & Mary.

"We all worked hard in the offseason," said Portsmouth senior forward Hannah Taylor. "We knew we'd have to make up for the loss of Libby. But everyone has something to offer to the team. We're just working on being unselfish."

Portsmouth coach Tim Hopley said the vibe on this year's team will be a lot different from last year.

"It's just a matter of figuring out roles — what works and what doesn't work," Hopley said. "We like what we have — 12 players back from last year and four seniors.”

Spaulding went 1-17 last season in Division I but that one win, which came in February, broke a 35-game losing streak that dated back to 2015.

Senior guard/forward Sam Cormier expects more good things for the Red Raiders this year.

"We're excited to set a new tone for the program," Cormier said. "We have a lot of fun even if we don't win all the games. It's a good team atmosphere — it really feels like a family."

Second-year coach Steve Langevin said the Red Raiders' struggles have done little to dampen enthusiasm for girls basketball in Rochester, as turnout was high for this year's team.

"They're playing together as a group and they're extremely positive," Langevin said.

"We're trying to keep interest high, build the program, get as many kids involved as possible."

Spaulding kicks off its season on Dec. 12 at Concord.

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